Part 12 (1/2)

”I'll take charge of this.”

”Sure, Chief. Plant it. She didn't have it.”

”She had it all right, but--we'll suspend judgment. You and the butler carry her upstairs. Go easy. Her bedroom is on the third floor, I think. That's the reason she didn't come down sooner. Perhaps, well, I say, she didn't hear us breaking down the door. We are her agents in this matter, now. Remember that, and say nothing to anybody. I'll do the talking.”

Drew dropped his hand into his side pocket. It came out without the revolver but with a handkerchief between his fingers. He mopped his brow gracefully, then replaced the handkerchief. The motion was a natural one.

He followed Delaney and the butler with their soft burden as far as the first steps of the stairway. He turned and strode back to the doorway leading into the library. He faced about in this. He eyed the servants, who lowered their heads beneath his accusing scrutiny. Focusing his gaze to a searching squint he tried to single out a culprit from their midst. There seemed to be none. Each face was terror-lined and drawn.

Each seemed to want to avoid his direct glance. None of all of them faced him with boldness or a.s.surance. It was as he expected things to be. There was no evidence shown in the case that the servants of the Stockbridge regime had ever threatened the master. They were old, tried and trusted. They had the faults of their kind. These faults only served to strengthen Drew's opinion that the murderer of the magnate had struck from the outside, without benefit of inside information. The letter and the telephone call were foreign. A note, pinned upon the millionaire's pillow, would have been more effective. Nothing had been tried like that. This proved to Drew that he could eliminate the servants, for the time being.

”Which one of you is the valet?” he asked with final resolve.

”I am, sir!”

Drew ran his eyes over an aged man in white vest and tight-fitting clothes which were studded here and there with gold-plated b.u.t.tons. The fit of the stockings--the neatness of the low patent-leather shoes--the smartness and aloofness of the individual, caused the detective to smile slightly. The man was better dressed than his master.

”Your native country is Germany?” said Drew.

”It was, sir.”

”No, it is yet. You can't change that part of it. When did you come to the United States?”

”Fourteen--fifteen years ago, sir. The master brought me from England where I was employed by the Right Honorable Arthur Sandhurst, sir.”

”You are now a naturalized American?”

”Going on thirteen years, sir.”

”Come down to my office about noon to-morrow. I want to speak to you then. I haven't time now. Be sure you bring that magpie with you.” Drew turned and jerked his thumb toward the front of the library. ”Do you understand?”

”I do, sir!”

”That's all!” exclaimed the detective. ”One of you may stand by the door until Mr. Delaney returns. The rest may go downstairs. Remember, no talking to anybody but accredited police officers, who will soon be here.”

”I'll stand guard!” announced the second-man with a pompous voice.

”n.o.body'll get by me, sir. I'll 'ave them know I'm right 'ere, sir.”

Drew backed through the curtains as the second-man was speaking. He dropped them behind him and started another search, which was done in solitude and in silence. He went over everything in the library with the trained eyes of an operative who had learned his profession in many schools. He left deduction and surmise for a later hour. He was after cold facts which might lead to an answer to the riddle. He held, with some slight scorn, the theory of the armchair detective and the puzzle worked out by retrospection. His experience had been, that only through hard work could he expect to find his answer. He had been credited with visiting six hundred laundries in search of a certain mark. He had a note book filled with his failures to find the man he was after. The men he had found caused him no concern whatsoever. They had gone to prison and closed their accounts with him.

He applied hard work over the minutes to the case at hand. He went over the body of the aged millionaire. He took sc.r.a.pings of the blood stains on the floor. He scratched up some few atoms of dried whisky. He examined the bottle. He searched each square inch under and about the body. He went through Stockbridge's pockets and beneath his vest. He tried everything in the way of getting facts which might bear on the case. A tape measure furnished certain distances which were recorded upon the back of an envelope. His data was complete, insofar as he had time to go. He desired to spend at least twelve hours in the library.

This could not be. The case would be taken from his hands within minutes. Already there was a stir in the front part of the house. The bell had been ringing for some time. Delaney and the butler had hastened forward to answer it.

”The Central Office bunch!” announced the operative, parting the curtains and staring in at Drew. ”Here they are, Chief!”

The detective stepped briskly out of the room and glided through the foyer hall to the front door. Here Delaney joined him, as steps were heard coming up from the servants' quarters as well as outside. It was as if a raid were in progress.

”Bra.s.s band methods!” said Drew. ”You get out, Delaney, and go to our taxi. Stay there! I want to speak to Fosd.i.c.k.”

The door opened. A burly form blotted out the light from the Avenue and stamped in, shaking the snow from his overcoat. It was Fosd.i.c.k--Chief of Detectives.